DISPATCHES

CONGRESS 'WORSE THAN DO-NOTHING'

When Republicans took over Congress in 1994, they pledged to run
government like a business. Unfortunately, that business turned out
to be Enron.

The 109th Congress set a new mark as the laziest in history. It
worked only 242 days over two years, shaving nearly two weeks off the
previous record of 254 days put in by the notorious 80th Congress
that Harry Truman reviled as "do nothing" in his 1948 campaign for
president. If Truman had seen the 109th, he would probably apologize
to the 80th Congress, said Norman Ornstein, a political analyst at
the American Enterprise Institute and co-author of The Broken Branch,
a book that argues that Congress is increasingly dysfunctional. "I
would say the 109th went out of town not with a bang but with a
whimper, but that would be an insult to whimperers everywhere," he
said in the Austin American-Statesman (12/10).

Indeed, Scott Shepard of Cox News noted that the 80th Congress
passed the Marshall Plan, which rebuilt war-ravaged Europe; the
National Security Act, which created the CIA; and the Clean Water
Act, which remains the primary federal law governing water
pollution.

In contrast, the 109th Congress created a Medicare prescription
drug plan but prohibited the government from negotiating lower drug
prices. It authorized, but did not fund, the building of a 700-mile
fence along parts of the US-Mexico border. And it passed a Military
Commissions Act, which sets up special military courts for suspected
terrorists and restricts basic constitutional rights such as habeas
corpus and other judicial review; even the bill's supporters admit
the law is unconstitutional. And the GOP Congress left undone nine of
the 11 annual appropriations bills required to finance government
agencies. Instead, before leaving town, Congress adopted "continuing
resolutions," which keep funding at current levels and left the
Democratic Congress to finish appropriations for the year that
started in October.

Congress failed to complete a comprehensive immigration reform
bill that Bush and a bipartisan majority of senators supported. It
did not enact sweeping ethics reforms even after the resignations of
GOP Reps. Tom DeLay of Texas, Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California,
Bob Ney of Ohio and Mark Foley of Florida, among at least 19
legislators who reportedly are under federal investigation, according
to TPMMuckraker.com.

"The 109th Congress vies for the title of the all-time-worst
Congress," said Thomas Mann, political analyst at the Brookings
Institution and co-author with Ornstein of The Broken Branch. "It
spent little time in session; it failed to pass budget resolutions
and appropriations bills; there was no serious oversight of the
disaster in Iraq; there were no major substantive policy
achievements; and corrupt members were forced from Congress."

Dems got another sweet win in the West Texas 23rd District runoff
(12/12) when former Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D), who lost his seat in the
Tom DeLay ordered gerrymandering in 2004, beat 7-term Rep. Henry
Bonilla (R) with 54.3% after federal courts ordered a new map. Dems
have a 233-201 majority, a 30-seat pickup with Florida's 13th
District still undecided due to voting irregularities.

OREGON EYES HEALTH PLAN: In Oregon, where Democrats retook
the state House for the first time in 16 years and will control state
government come January, lawmakers are looking at a universal
healthcare program that could serve as a model for legislation on the
federal level. A Senate commission has endorsed the framework for a
universal health care plan for Oregon, the Portland Oregonian
reported (12/9). The draft bill lacks details, such as costs, but the
plan would give every Oregonian a health card that could be used to
buy a complete health care package -- including dental, mental health
and vision coverage -- for less than most businesses and individuals
now pay. In addition to the goal of expanding access, the plan
includes features to control costs and improve quality. The
commission includes four state senators and 17 business and health
industry representatives. Doctors and hospitals worry that the new
system will bring lower payments for their services. Insurers and
businesses worry that they'll bear the brunt of costs for change. But
they all want to push forward with a comprehensive plan, Maribeth
Healey, executive director of Oregonians for Health Security, told
the Oregonian.

The plan would require all employers and individuals to contribute
money to a common pool called the Oregon Health Care Trust Fund.
Residents who earn less than 250% of the poverty level would not have
to pay. The fund also would include public employee and federal
Medicaid contributions. The plan would collect money, possibly a
payroll tax, from businesses. Large companies with self-insurance
plans would have their contributions reimbursed. A Health Care Trust
Fund board, appointed by the governor, would adopt regulations and
administer the trust. Businesses and individuals could choose health
plans, which would be paid through the trust with rates set by the
trust commission. The plan would cover all Oregonians, including the
more than 600,000 who now lack health insurance. Individuals who
choose not to participate in the plan would lose their personal state
income tax deduction.

If the bill passes, Oregonians likely would not see health cards
before 2009.

PINOCHET GAVE DICTATORS BAD NAME: When Augusto Pinochet
died on 12/10 at age 91, a Bush White House spokesman said his
dictatorship in Chile "represented one of the most difficult periods
in that nation's history. Our thoughts today are with the victims of
his reign and their families." Pinochet, a general who was then chief
of staff of the Chilean armed forces, overthrew the elected socialist
government of Salvador Allende in 1973 with the assistance of the
CIA. Then he set up a secret police network that hunted down
dissidents, executed at least 3,197 leftists and labor activists and
tortured 29,000 while another thousand disappeared with no trace.
Hundreds of thousands were sent into political or economic exile. In
league with other right-wing dictators in South America, Pinochet set
up Operation Condor to pursue dissidents across the globe, with at
least some cooperation by the CIA. Among the assassinations Pinochet
authorized was Orlando Letelier, a former defense minister in
Allende's government, who was blown up by a car bomb in Washington,
D.C., in September 1976. Also killed in the bombing was Ronni
Moffitt, an American citizen and an associate of Letelier's at the
Institute for Policy Studies.

In 1978, Michael Townley, a former CIA employee, was convicted in
the US of placing the bomb on Letelier's car for DINA, the Chilean
secret police. The US government under Jimmy Carter tried to
extradite other terrorists involved in the assassination. But after
Ronald Reagan's inauguration, the extradition efforts were abandoned,
the US re-established military ties and supported loans to Chile as
UN Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick (who died 12/7 at age 80) visited
Pinochet, pursuing her doctrine that it was OK for the US to support
repressive dictatorships because "authoritarian regimes" (like
Pinochet or Iraq's strongman Saddam Hussein) were capable of evolving
peacefully toward democracy, whereas "totalitarian states" -- such as
the Soviet Union, Nicaragua or Cuba -- were incapable of such
change.

Right wingers often credit Pinochet with steering Chile's economy
back to the free market after Allende's efforts to nationalize
industry, but Marc Cooper noted, the "shock therapy" nostrums
prescribed by Milton Friedman pushed Chile to the brink of bankruptcy
and caused the first public rebellions against the regime in 1983,
motivated as much by hunger as political rage. Pinochet tried to
validate his rule with a 1988 plebiscite, but got only 43% support.
He finally stepped down as president in 1990, but remained head of
the army until 1998. He gave up that position only after naming
himself senator-for-life with immunity from prosecution under the
terms of a military-written constitution.

While he was on a trip to Britain in 1998, crusading judges in
Spain forced his arrest on charges of murdering and torturing Spanish
citizens in Chile. He was returned to Chile and stripped of immunity.
Legal actions gathered momentum in the two years before his death, as
several of his key subordinates were imprisoned, but his failing
health helped him avoid trials in hundreds of court cases filed
against him. Even his defenders were stunned when investigators found
that millions of dollars, apparently stolen from Chile, were secretly
deposited in his name in foreign banks, including the Riggs Bank in
Washington. In October, Chilean investigators announced the discovery
of 10 tons of gold, worth an estimated $160 million, in Pinochet's
name in a Hong Kong bank.

A couple weeks after the Letelier assassination, a Cubana airliner
was brought down by anti-Castro Cubans, killing 73 passengers. Luis
Posada Carilles, a Cuban-born Venezuelan national who was said to be
involved in Operation Condor and may have played a role in the
Letelier bombing, was alleged to be responsible for the Cubana
bombing. Now he is being held by US authorities on an immigration
violation, but the Bush administration refuses to extradite Posada to
Venezuela, where the bombing occurred, much less send him to Cuba,
where he has admitted being part of a plot to bomb tourist
hotels.

IMMIGRANTS PAY THEIR WAY IN TEXAS: While many "reform"
activists claim that undocumented immigrants are a drain on
taxpayers, Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn reported in
December that undocumented immigrants in Texas produced $1.58 bln in
state revenues, which exceeded the $1.16 bln in state services they
received. Undocumented immigrants were responsible for $17.7 bln of
the gross state product, she said, in what was billed as the first
comprehensive analysis of the impact of undocumented immigrants on a
state's budget and economy. The findings contradict two recent
reports, "The Cost of Illegal Immigration to Texans" by the
Federation for American Immigration Reform and "Costs of Federally
Mandated Services to Undocumented Immigrants in Colorado" by the Bell
Policy Center. Both claimed immigrant costs exceed revenue. The Texas
comptroller's study noted that local governments bore the burden of
$1.44 bln in uncompensated health care costs and local law
enforcement costs not paid for by the state, while immigrants paid
more than $513 million in local taxes. (A national health program
would take care of that gap.) Texas is believed to have between 1.4
mln and 1.6 mln undocumented immigrants, approximately 14% of the
undocumented in the US, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. See
www.window.state.tx.us.

McCAIN HIRES DIRTY TRICKSTER: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
signaled that he has put his principles in a blind trust while he
pursues the Republican presidential nomination. Matt Stoller of
MyDD.com noted that McCain hired as his campaign manager Terry
Nelson, an unindicted co-conspirator in the TRMPAC scandal that led
to the downfall of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Nelson was
a key point of contact between DeLay and the Republican National
Committee. Nelson was James Tobin's boss during the 2002 New
Hampshire phone-jamming scandal, for which Tobin was convicted.
Nelson also worked at the head of opposition research for the
National Republican Congressional Committee this cycle, where
robocalls from Republicans pretending to be Democrats were the norm
all over the country. Nelson also produced the racist bimbo ad
against Harold Ford (D) in the Tennessee Senate race.

MOVING BACK UP: Dems are wondering what to do with Rep.
Bill Jefferson (D-La.) now that his New Orleans constituents
re-elected him with 57% of the vote in a 12/9 runoff despite reports
that the FBI is investigating him on bribery allegations involving
business dealings in Africa. House Dem leaders yanked Jefferson off
the Ways & Means Committee in June after the disclosure that the
FBI found $90,000 in his freezer. The Washington Post reported
(12/12) that House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi is likely to place him
on a lower-profile committee and hope the controversy dies down. An
indictment has been delayed because of a protracted legal battle over
documents the FBI seized from Jefferson's office in May, the Post
reported.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported (12/10) that Jefferson may
have benefited from widespread post-Katrina disgust with the federal
power structure. "Under one theory, if the national government could
fumble the region's recovery so badly, its lawyers also could be
targeting Jefferson wrongly," Michelle Krupa and Frank Donze wrote.
Jefferson narrowly won with 51% in predominantly black Orleans
Parish, but carried 71% in predominantly white and suburban Jefferson
Parish, where Sheriff Harry Lee launched an 11th-hour barrage of
criticism against Carter for her repudiation of law enforcement
officers' decision to stop black people on the east bank of Orleans
Parish from crossing the Crescent City Connection to flee Katrina's
floodwaters.

MONT. GOP GIVES ED FOE CHAIR: Republicans, who control the
Montana state House by one vote, are giving the House Education
Committee chair to the Legislature's only third-party member, Rick
Jore, a Constitution Party lawmaker who opposes more money for public
schools. The rare appointment of a third-party member to chair a
committee -- especially in his first session after a six-year hiatus
from politics -- comes as the GOP courts Jore in the chamber they
control by a slim 50-49 margin. Jore, a Republican legislator in the
1990s before switching parties, told the Associated Press (12/7) he
never asked for the chairmanship. He wants to abolish compulsory
school attendance but promised to be "respectful of every viewpoint
and all witnesses that come before" his committee. Republican leaders
dismissed the criticism of Montana educators. "I don't recall the
education community supporting the speaker, or myself either," said
House Republican leader Mike Lange of Billings. "They didn't win.
That's the bottom line. If they want to control the committee, my
recommendation to them is to be better at campaigning than they were.
We owe them no explanation whatsoever."

GOP SNUBS FARMERS: The US Senate rejected $4.8 billion in
disaster aid for US farmers and ranchers (12/5), despite pleas that
tens of thousands of producers could go broke without help. Budget
Chair Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) derailed the package by objecting that it
violated spending limits. Senators voted 57-37 to exempt it but 60
votes are needed under Senate rules, so the package failed, Reuters
reported. Advocates vowed to try again next year, when Dems control
Congress, but the White House has threatened to veto disaster aid.
Jonathan Singer of MyDD.com noted (12/5) that Dems have not carried
the farming states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas
in presidential races since Lyndon Johnson's landslide of 1964. But
the Dakotas continued their habit of sending Dems to Congress,
Nebraska re-elected Sen. Ben Nelson (D) with 64% and Kansas
re-elected its Democratic governor and replaced an incumbent attorney
general and a congressman, both GOP, with Democrats. "Democrats have
a real chance to show voters in the region that it is President Bush
who is standing in the way of farmers receiving disaster relief," he
said, adding that "forcing the Republicans to play defense in a
Kansas or North Dakota makes it that much more difficult for the
Republican presidential nominee to emerge victorious on Nov. 4,
2008."

DUBYA BREAKS BUSH FRANCHISE: One good thing about the Iraq
Study Group report is that it should put a stop to the Bush Family
Dynasty. Eleanor Clift noted at MSNBC.com (12/8) that former
president George H.W. Bush broke down crying in a speech (12/4) when
he recalled how his son, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, lost an election a
dozen years ago and then came back to serve two successful terms.
"The elder Bush has always been a softie, but this display of emotion
was so over the top that it had to be about something other than
Jeb's long-ago loss," Clift wrote.

Jeb's election loss turned out to be pivotal, she said, because it
disrupted the plan the senior Bush had for his sons. "The family's
grand design had the No. 2 son, Jeb, by far the brighter and more
responsible, ascend to the presidency while George, the partying
frat-boy type, settled for second best in Texas. The plan went awry
when Jeb, contrary to conventional wisdom, lost in Florida, and
George unexpectedly defeated Ann Richards in Texas. With the favored
heir on the sidelines, the family calculus shifted. They'd go for the
presidency with the son that won and not the one they wished had
won.

"The son who was wrongly launched has made such a mess of things
that he has ruined the family franchise. Without getting too Oedipal,
it's fair to say that so many mistakes George W. Bush made are the
result of his need to distinguish himself from his father and show
that he's smarter and tougher." Now historians are debating whether
Dubya is the worst president ever, "or just among the four or five
worst."

PROGS MUSCLE DEM AGENDA: Citigroup executive Bob Rubin gave
prescriptions for economic growth to the House Democratic Caucus
(12/6), but David Sirota reported that Bill Clinton's former treasury
secretary was peppered with questions about the loss of manufacturing
jobs and trade policies by populist Democrats, according to a source
at the meeting. Among the questioners were freshman Reps. Joe
Donnelly (Ind.), Steve Kagen (Wis.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Nancy
Boyda (Kan.), Carol Shea-Porter (N.H.) as well as veteran Reps. Marcy
Kaptur (Ohio), Bill Pascrell (N.J.) and George Miller (Calif.), who
echoed Bill Greider's recent Nation column pointing out that when
Wall Street executives like Rubin talk about intellectual property
and financial services in trade agreements, everything is clear. But
when they start to talk about labor provisions and the environment,
it's supposedly "too controversial" and "too complicated." Sirota
commented, "this is a VERY encouraging sign for progressives,
especially with labor now getting even more publicly aggressive on
these issues."

Change America Now (CAN) a coalition of 40 progressive
organizations, is set to push the House Democrats' economic agenda.
The coalition will press House and Senate members to vote for popular
items such as a minimum wage increase, negotiating for lower drug
prices, student loan interest-rate reductions and a repeal of tax
benefits for the oil and gas industry to pay for alternative energy
research. It is targeting 86 districts -- 54 Republican and 32
Democratic districts, most represented by moderates -- for press
events and possibly TV advertising, according to a list obtained by
The Hill. Americans United Communications Director Brad Woodhouse
said the campaign would target "the walking wounded" who narrowly won
re-election, mounting an offensive in targeted districts. "Democrats
had a mandate for change," said Woodhouse. "Now is the time to show
what that change means." Groups taking a lead role in the effort
include the Campaign for America's Future, USAction, the Service
Employees International Union (SEIU), the Sierra Club and the
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME).

SHERROD DEMANDS POPULISTS: Sen.-elect Sherrod Brown
(D-Ohio) has thrown down the gauntlet to all the Democratic
presidential candidates. Asked whether he had any interest in being
vice president, he told Mother Jones, "No. But anybody that runs for
the president will have to go through Ohio, literally and
figuratively. The Democrats need to nominate somebody that will be an
economic populist, that will stand up for the middle class, that
doesn't just want to increase the minimum wage but somebody that will
work to put the government on the side of working families. And that
means different trade policy, standing up to the drug industry,
taking on the oil industry. It means showing that the Democratic
Party is a progressive, populist party."

HONEST ABE-AMA: The groundswell of support for Sen. Barack
Obama (D-Ill.) for a presidential race -- his first trip to New
Hampshire in December brought 150 journalists from as far away as
Australia and drew 2,000 to one event -- must be causing heartburn
for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) as well as causing some sputtering
that Obama isn't as progressive as people might think (see Alexander
Cockburn's rant, page 18, for example). For the record, John Edwards
is the most progressive populist potential candidate in the race so
far and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is considering another race to
push the debate to the left. But Barack has unplumbed depths of
charisma, a megawatt smile and, with his relative lack of experience
comes a lack of scandal and embarassing votes as well. The worst
Republicans have come up with so far is that his middle name is
"Hussein" (but you can be sure they're looking for more dirt -- if
Hillary's operatives don't beat them to it.) As for experience, Rich
Miller, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and publisher of the
Capitol Fax newsletter (thecapitolfaxblog.com), noted (12/8) that
Abraham Lincoln's sole governmental experience was eight years in the
Illinois House and just two years in Congress, "yet he was one of our
greatest presidents." Obama served seven years in the Illinois Senate
and is completing his first two years as a US senator.

REP: BUSH WARNED ABOUT WEBB: Right wingers have been
attacking Sen.-elect Jim Webb (D-Va.) for not showing deference to
President Bush at a White House reception. According to reports, Bush
sought out Webb to ask him, "How's your boy?" referring to Webb's son
Jimmy, who is serving in Iraq. Webb answered, "I'd like to get them
out of Iraq, Mr. President," to which Bush responded, "That's not
what I asked you." Webb then replied, "That's between me and my boy,
Mr. President."

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly said Webb was "rude," "inappropriate,"
and "disrespectful" to Bush's "nice gesture." The National Review's
"Corner" called Webb "classless" and conservative columnist George
Will labeled him "a boor."

But according to Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), Bush was told before the
reception that Webb's son had a recent brush with death in Iraq and
was warned to be "extra sensitive" when talking to the senator-elect,
ThinkProgress.org reported 12/5.

OUTGOING FRIST OPPOSES PARTISANSHIP: Sen. Bill Frist
(D-Tenn.) delivered his farewell address (12/7), urging his
colleagues not to be influenced by "destructive partisanship."
ThinkProgress.org noted that it was an odd statement coming from
Frist, who in his four years as majority leader allowed one
polarizing issue after another to divide the Senate and the nation.
Among Frist's partisan ploys, he pushed a gay marriage ban in June to
spark a fiery election-year debate. He pushed a constitutional
amendment to ban flag burning. He lumped a proposed minimum wage hike
with an estate tax cut, saying "It's now or never." He bucked Bush on
immigration, maneuvering toward a pre-election showdown with
Democrats. A heart surgeon by training, he argued on the Senate floor
that Florida doctors had erred in saying Terri Schiavo was in a
"persistent vegetative state," based on his review of video footage
which he spent "an hour or so looking at last night in my office." He
advocated teaching "intelligent design" in public schools alongside
evolution. And he threatened to rewrite Senate rules to do away with
the filibuster if Democrats tried to block Bush judicial
appointments.

DEADLOCK ON E-VOTE PAPER TRAIL: A federal advisory panel on
12/4 rejected a staff recommendation that states use only voting
machines that produced results that could be independently verified.
The panel drafting voting guidelines for the US Election Assistance
Commission voted 6-6 not to adopt a proposal that would have required
electronic machines used by millions of voters to produce a paper
record or other independent means of checking election results, the
Associated Press reported (12/5). The failed resolution, proposed by
Ronald Rivest, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer
scientist and panel member, closely mirrored a report by the National
Institute of Standards and Technology warning that paperless
electronic voting machines are vulnerable to errors and fraud and
cannot be made secure. Some panel members worried that the systems
with audit trails could present problems of their own, including
printer errors. Others said it was unclear whether paper records
could be used by voters who are blind or have other disabilities. But
Rivest warned his colleagues that software errors in the paperless
machines could go undetected without a way of verifying the voting
results.

PRO-LIFE DEMS WIN: Pro-life Democrats, who not only oppose
abortion but believe respect for life should continue after the baby
is born, won seven races in the midterm elections, including Bob
Casey (D-Pa.), who defeated Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). "This is
tremendous victory for pro-life Democrats and a signal that the
Democratic Party can no longer be considered the party of abortion,"
Democrats for Life of America stated. Pro-life Dems who replaced
Republicans or pro-choice Dems include Heath Shuler (D), who defeated
Rep. Charlie Taylor (R) in North Carolina's 11th District; Charlie
Wilson (D), a state senator who took Ohio's 6th District seat with
62% of the vote after pro-choice Rep. Ted Strickland (D) ran for
governor; In Indiana, Joe Donnelly (D) defeated Rep. Chris Chocola
(R) with 54% in the 2nd District; Brad Ellsworth (D) defeated Rep.
John Hostettler (R) with 61% in the 8th District; and Baron Hill (R)
is returning to Congress in the 9th District, where he beat Rep. Mike
Sodrel (R) with 49% in a three-way race; in Pennsylvania, Jason
Altmire (D) defeated Rep. Melissa Hart (R) with 52% in the 4th
District and Chris Carney (D) defeated Rep. Don Sherwood (R) with 53%
in its 10th District. Democrats for Life of America hopes to garner
bipartisan support for the Pregnant Women Support Act, the National
Cord Blood Inventory Act and the Child Custody Protection Act. See
www.democratsforlife.org.

Robert Novak noted (12/2) that EMILY's List, which supports
pro-choice female Democrats, picked up just two of 19 Republican
House seats it had targeted for defeat. In those 19 districts,
EMILY's List spent $1.5 mln in independent expenditures and made
$921,000 in direct contributions. It funneled a total of $241,357 to
Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth in Illinois and $159,000 to State
Atty. Gen. Patricia Madrid in New Mexico. Duckworth and Madrid, both
narrow losers, were among the highest-profile Democratic challengers
this year. In Democratic House primaries, Novak noted, EMILY's List
lost four out of six competitive races.

PROG REPS URGE TRADE RIGHTS: US Reps. Lynn Woolsey
(D-Calif.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), George Miller (D-Calif.), Barney
Frank (D-Mass.) and 26 other House members introduced legislation to
protest the efforts of US-based transnational corporations, such as
Microsoft, Nike, Wal-Mart and AT&T, to undermine the most basic
human rights of Chinese workers and block proposed new worker rights
and labor standards in a proposed new Chinese labor law. The American
Chamber of Commerce in China and some of America's most-prestigious
brand-name corporations are leading efforts to weaken, if not block
altogether, significant worker rights and protections in China. The
legislation calls upon President Bush to underscore the commitment of
all Americans and the US government to support
internationally-recognized worker rights. See
www.laborstrategies.org.

RUMMY CONTRADICTS BUSH: We almost hate to bring it up in
the Christmas season, but ThinkProgress.org noted that on Hannity and
Colmes (12/11), outgoing Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld said he
was removed as a direct result of the "outcome of the election." On
Nov. 8, Bush said explicitly that, regardless of the outcome of the
election, Rumsfeld would be replaced by Bob Gates. So Bush may have
been lying when he told the press before the election that Rumsfeld
or he may have been lying when he told the press after the election
that he always planned on replacing Rumsfeld. Or both he and Rumsfeld
may have merely been confused. Meanwhile, a CBS poll (12/11) showed
approval of Bush's handling of the Iraq war has dropped to 21%, an
all-time low.

WAGES UP, FED IS WORRIED: Wages for ordinary workers are
finally going up after six years of stagnation. The average hourly
wage for workers below management level -- everyone from school bus
drivers to stockbrokers -- rose 2.8% from October 2005 to October of
this year, after being adjusted for inflation, according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only a year ago, it was falling by 1.5%.
Unfortunately, that has Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warning
that the central bank might have to raise interest rates again. "One
factor that we are watching carefully is labor costs," he said. "Ah
yes. 'Labor costs,'" Kevin Drum noted at WashingtonMonthly.com
(12/8). "We can't have those rising, can we? Not only does it get the
workers all uppity, but it drains corporate treasuries and puts a
crimp in CEO pay increases. That would be a disaster."

MORE PEOPLE SHOP LOCAL: A three-year-old campaign to
encourage people in northwest Washington state to "Think Local First"
is having a dramatic effect on spending behavior, according to a
recent survey. Applied Research Northwest found that 69% of
respondents in Whatcom County (Bellingham) are familiar with the
Think Local First campaign and 58% are making a more deliberate
effort to patronize locally owned businesses than they did before the
campaign started three years ago. They survey also found that 86% of
respondents are spending the same or more money at locally owned
businesses than they did before the campaign. Only 12% reported
spending less. The Think Local First campaign was created by
Sustainable Connections, a nonprofit membership organization of 535
businesses in the city of Bellingham and surrounding Whatcom County
dedicated to building an economy based on sustainable business
practices. See www.newrules.org.